Thursday, July 29, 2010

My friend Kathy hosts First Line Friday. You can find her at the link below. Check her out. She has a wonderful blog of lots of reviews of books. You can't go wrong by checking out her blog and a Kathy Recommended Read.

FIRST LINE FRIDAY...First lines have always intrigued me since I heard an authorsay that writing the first sentence is, by far, the most difficult part of writing a novel.The reasoning was that a first sentence can make the reader continue reading orcause the book to be tossed aside. So, go to your To Be Read Pile, choose asmany books as you want and share the first line. Be sure to include the title andauthor so that if your reader also finds it intriguing, they can find the book. Also,share your thoughts about the first line. Does it draw you in? Is it...exciting...thoughtprovoking...scary...funny?

I've been on a sci-fi kick still but have switched to Vampire stories. I guess because we finally did get to go and see Eclipse and we've been watching True Blood on HBO also. I love this series. My friend Heather finally told me I should read the books and that she'd send me hers to "borrow". LOL, I don't borrow books except from the library. I'm afraid a friend might send me a "borrow" and I'll want to keep it so if someone says I can borrow I usually just say thanks but I'll just see if I can find it on paperbackswap.com first and if not there I will buy it.

Anyway, I read Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris. It's the first in the Sookie Stackhouse novels which True Blood is based on. I loved it. The series really stuck to the book. They had a character called "Bubba" that I would have loved to see in the series but they left him out. Let's just say he was based on a well-known Memphis singer and referred to in the book as the Man from Memphis. Got it? I knew you would figure it out. Now I've started the 2nd book in the series called Living Dead in Dallas. Of course, I know what's going on since I watch the cable series but still to read it and see the little changes makes me love it more. Here's the first line.....

Andy Bellefleur was as drunk as a skunk.

Woohoo! What a first line. For one thing this character doesn't get drunk so it makes you wonder what's going on with him. I found out of course because as soon as I got the book in the mail today I couldn't stop reading it. The character Sookie being able to read minds doesn't hurt either. While it was out of character for Andy it made sense after Sookie read his thoughts and found out how why he was so depressed. Oh and before I forget to tell you Andy is a detective on the small police force in Bon Temps, Louisiana where the book takes place. You can just imagine what it would take for someone like him to get as drunk as a skunk. By page 6 I find out that one of my favorite characters in the cable series is found dead in Andy's car which had been left overnight at the bar since he was drunk. I am so glad that there was that slight change in the character not being killed on the cable series. Probably if I had read the books first it wouldn't have mattered to me because I wouldn't have known anything much about that character to start with but now after watching him for two seasons he's a very endearing character. I'm glad for that little twist but since I plan to read the rest of the books in the series (in order) I'm sure that if there are some future characters that are out of the cable series and vice versa it won't make any difference to me then. It's like with all book to movies stories......the books are always better.

Monday, July 26, 2010

It seems that with Bloggers new design changes there's not too much that can be done with backgrounds. So far I've figured out a little about the dimensions needed but I can't get it exactly. I made another blog just to try out the different backgrounds without changing my everyday blog and graphics blog but I just haven't had any real inspiration yet. Oh well, any excuse to play right? LOL.

Sunday, July 18, 2010

I was just sitting here wondering what I would name a bookstore if I owned one. Would I tie in my name with it? Would I give it a quaint/quirky or cute name? I think it'd be fun to come up with a name. I don't think I'd ever own a bookstore but maybe if I ever win the lottery I'll get the chance.

The reason I got to wondering is that a friend on Facebook has posted a link to a bookstore in California called The Horse's Mouth Bookstore and Coffee Shop. I thought that was a really cool name for a bookstore. Then when I was looking at pictures on their site they had posted a picture of another bookstore in California called The Booklegger. Love it! We don't have anything but chain bookstores around here. You know Barnes and Noble, Books-A-Million, etc. Yeah, I really think if I ever win the lottery I would definitely build a little bookstore in my little town. We don't even have a local library but still I think I'd really like to do something like that. Gotta dream right? Of course, by the time I win the lottery, books will all be on Kindles and I have the perfect name for that bookstore. Karen's Kindlestore. LOL.

Saturday, July 17, 2010

Chris had to go to the east coast and won't be home til Wednesday now. I am so tired because I had to pick him up from work this morning and I had a bad night trying to sleep. First mistake I made was eating a tuna sandwich for dinner last night at 9 p.m. I didn't want cereal or peanut butter. I ended up waking up about 1:30 with indigestion really bad. I took an otc med for it and tried to go back to sleep but ended up getting out of bed at 2:30 because I was miserable. I took a nice hot shower and went ahead and got dressed because he should have been calling for me to come and get him anytime by then. He finally called at 4 to let me know to go and get him so off I went. It's really weird being online and not another person I'm friends or family with not online either. LOL....Lori wasn't even online and she works nights. Of course it's weekend for her so I didn't expect to see her there anyway. I went and got Chris and we came home and he got all cleaned up. I got the kids up to go to town so I wouldn't have to drive back and forth too much. Driving just kills me if I make too many trips to town in a row. Yesterday I did errands and walked almost all of Walmart so I'm wiped out from that too and just more driving today really did me in. Anyway, we dropped Chris off and went to IHOP for breakfast. I thought they were going to get Minions stuff (from the movie Despicable Me) but they got regular breakfast stuff instead. Then to my Mom's to visit with her for a few hours and then we finally went and saw Toy Story 3. We loved it. I guess we weren't moved to tears during the movie since we knew about it. I kept waiting to get really teary eyed but nope, nada drop out of our eyes. Then we came home and Nicky okayed something on his computer that made my modem disappear so I had to figure that out. Thank goodness for System Restore. Now I'm catching up on emails and Facebook and I plan to go to bed really, really, really early tonight. LOL.

Sunday, July 11, 2010

This video broke my heart yesterday. It sucks my Dad has to be in the hospital but we don't have the means or money to take care of him at home. My Dad's birthday is July 12th and then they're 50th anniversary is August 10th. They shouldn't have to be apart but there's no reason for my Mom to be in a home. We're just lucky that my Dad is a veteran. Not of any wars because he was too young for World War 2 and Korea and too old and too many kids for Vietnam but he still served his country for about 7 years or so by being in the Navy in the late 50's and then the reserve during the early 60's. If he hadn't served I don't know how we could get him the help he needs now that he has dementia so badly. Anyway, at least we have him at a local VA and can go and see him when we want but still its hard to see him like he is now. I miss my Dad so much.

FIRST LINE FRIDAY...First lines have always intrigued me since I heard an authorsay that writing the first sentence is, by far, the most difficult part of writing a novel.The reasoning was that a first sentence can make the reader continue reading orcause the book to be tossed aside. So, go to your To Be Read Pile, choose asmany books as you want and share the first line. Be sure to include the title andauthor so that if your reader also finds it intriguing, they can find the book. Also,share your thoughts about the first line. Does it draw you in? Is it...exciting...thoughtprovoking...scary...funny?

I've been on a sci-fi kick this past week. I grabbed one of the books in my TBR pile and its one of the sci-fi books I got through www.paperbackswap.com last week. If you haven't checked out this site you're missing out on a great way to exchange your old read for new old reads or slightly new old reads. I love that site. I've saved nearly $400 in the past 3 years on just books I want to read there alone. I still get books from other places too but if you're looking for an out of date book or an old read chances are likely you'll be able to find it there.

My book is called The Way It Wasn't: Great Science Fiction Stories of Alternate History. I admit I'm a Sci-Fi geek. I love reading short stories from this genre especially. The first short story in this book is called Lion Time in Timbuctoo by Robert Silverberg. Here's the first line....

In the dry stifling days of early summer, the Emir lay dying, the king, the imam, Big Father of the Songhay, in his cool, dark mud-walled palace in the Sankore quarter of Old Timbuctoo.

With all those titles he must be some Emir. It'll be interesting to see where this story goes. I have no clue except that I can figure its set in a jungle setting. That's one thing about short stories is they're the best of a long read condensed for those days I just can't get into a huge read.

On a side note, I almost bought Stephen King's Under the Dome. Talk about a huge read. With my carpal tunnel I doubt I'd be able to hold this book very long. Even with a softback cover. Seriously, this book only has 1088 pages. I do want to read it so I'm sure I'll see if www.paperbackswap.com has it yet and if it doesn't then I'll go to www.amazon.com and get it there. It's only about $10 so that's better than what I would have paid for it where I saw it.

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

A nice Wednesday. That's what we had. LOL. After running around all weekend at my Mother in Law's house we needed just an easy day. Well, sort of easy. Chris had a doctor appointment. He's been having a few things going on with him. Not bad but come to find out it might be from the cholesterol medication he takes. The 3 things he complained about match up for side effects with what he takes. I knew it had to be something easier than the hernia he has. The things he's been complaining about came around way before the hernia too. My hubby is just a wee bit of a hypochondriac at times. We've got good insurance though so better he get checked out. It was time for a follow up with the doctor anyway. He's gained 7 pounds since October 2009 so that's not bad but he really needs to cut down again. He's done it with controlling not eating red meat or fried foods but we were kind of lax lately so its back to the basics again for him plus portion control. We're going to go and buy him some resistance bands so he can do the exercises for them while lying in the bunk of the truck. That plus walking should work for him. We're also going to finally get some money saved to get an exercise bike at home. I can't go walking with him because of my neurapathy. It sucks because I used to walk all the time before they got bad but I will be able to do the bike at home. Anyway the doctor told him to start taking a Prilosec or the generic of it every day and we'll see how that goes. If it doesn't help then we'll have to see about it being the hernia. Also, he's going to get a sleep apnea test done. His brother and father both have it so better safe on that also. I don't think he has it but we'll see. After we went to the doctor we had a late breakfast and took lunch back to the kids and my Mom and brother. We had left the kids there so we wouldn't hear how bored they were at the doctor's office. We finally got to go and see Shrek too. I loved it! It's a nice finish to the story of Shrek but I still want more. LOL. We finished up the day with some wonderful Chinese food for dinner. Like I said it was a nice Wednesday. :D

Thursday, July 1, 2010

early. We'll be at MIL's house this weekend. We haven't seen her in about 6 months so we're really looking forward to seeing her and brother in law and his family. I picked up an outfit each for the kids. I know the baby's will be too big but he's growing so fast it won't be long before it'll fit him. I hope you all have a fun and very safe holiday on Sunday.

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